“‘And is this Case a man of a sanctified life?’ I asked.

“He admitted he was not; for, though he did not drink, he was profligate with women, and had no religion.

" ‘Then,’ said I, ’I think the less you have to do with him the better.’

“But it is not easy to have the last word with a man like Namu.  He was ready in a moment with an illustration.  ‘Misi,’ said he, ’you have told me there were wise men, not pastors, not even holy, who knew many things useful to be taught — about trees for instance, and beasts, and to print books, and about the stones that are burned to make knives of.  Such men teach you in your college, and you learn from them, but take care not to learn to be unholy.  Misi, Case is my college.’

“I knew not what to say.  Mr. Vigours had evidently been driven out of Falesa by the machinations of Case and with something not very unlike the collusion of my pastor.  I called to mind it was Namu who had reassured me about Adams and traced the rumour to the ill-will of the priest.  And I saw I must inform myself more thoroughly from an impartial source.  There is an old rascal of a chief here, Faiaso, whom I dare say you saw to-day at the council; he has been all his life turbulent and sly, a great fomenter of rebellions, and a thorn in the side of the mission and the island.  For all that he is very shrewd, and, except in politics or about his own misdemeanours, a teller of the truth.  I went to his house, told him what I had heard, and besought him to be frank.  I do not think I had ever a more painful interview.  Perhaps you will understand me, Mr. Wiltshire, if I tell you that I am perfectly serious in these old wives’ tales with which you reproached me, and as anxious to do well for these islands as you can be to please and to protect your pretty wife.  And you are to remember that I thought Namu a paragon, and was proud of the man as one of the first ripe fruits of the mission.  And now I was informed that he had fallen in a sort of dependence upon Case.  The beginning of it was not corrupt; it began, doubtless, in fear and respect, produced by trickery and pretence; but I was shocked to find that another element had been lately added, that Namu helped himself in the store, and was believed to be deep in Case’s debt.  Whatever the trader said, that Namu believed with trembling.  He was not alone in this; many in the village lived in a similar subjection; but Namu’s case was the most influential, it was through Namu Case had wrought most evil; and with a certain following among the chiefs, and the pastor in his pocket, the man was as good as master of the village.  You know something of Vigours and Adams, but perhaps you have never heard of old Underhill, Adams’ predecessor.  He was a quiet, mild old fellow, I remember, and we were told he had died suddenly:  white men die very suddenly in Falesa.  The truth, as I now heard it, made my blood run cold.  It seems